Polymeric resins have long been known for their chemical and physical properties. Molded or extruded resins have found numerous applications, such as in appliances, consumer products, electronics, machine components, automotive parts and the like. However, the physical and chemical properties of the polymeric resins, and thus the components or articles fabricated therefrom, vary widely depending upon the chemical structure of the main chain or backbone of the polymeric resins, as well as the molecular weight of such polymeric resins.
For example, polycarbonate resins are known to possess desired heat distortion temperatures, but suffer in that such polymeric resins, and thus articles molded or extruded therefrom, generally possess low chemical resistance to solvents, low stress crack resistance, and low impact strength when thick sections of the polymer are required or utilized. On the other hand, polymeric resins, such as the polyamides (i.e. the nylons), are known to be chemically resistant to a large number of solvents, and to have a desired degree of toughness and abrasion resistance. However, the polyamide polymers also possess certain inherent disadvantages, unless modified, such as relatively low impact strength, a low heat distortion temperature, and an affinity to pick up moisture.
In order to modify the properties of polymeric resins, mixtures of selected polymeric resins have been utilized to form blends. However, in many cases, such as with polycarbonate and polyamide resins, such resins are incompatible. Attempts to render such resinous materials compatible have generally involved expensive chemical compounds or process conditions, and even then the resulting resinous blend often does not possess the desired properties. Therefore, it would be highly desirably and a significant advance in the art if an efficient and economical process or compatibilizing agent could be found which could render polycarbonate resins compatible with polyamide or nylon resins, without sacrificing the desired properties of each of the resinous materials forming the blend.